{"id":30680,"date":"2023-02-01T14:39:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T22:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30680"},"modified":"2023-02-01T14:39:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T22:39:23","slug":"american-exceptionalism-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/american-exceptionalism-my\/","title":{"rendered":"American Exceptionalism, My\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Globalization is one buzzword we have all heard for the last decade or more. And with the development of faster travel and innovative communication technology, we are living in a more universally connected world than ever before. Well, maybe not, according to Jeffrey David Sachs, American economist and scholar, who believes humanity has always been globalized.<\/span>\u00a0[1]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Sachs penned\u00a0<\/span>The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions<\/span><\/em>\u00a0as a historical and economic analysis of various stages of cross-continental humanization. Calling them \u201cAges,\u201d the economist examines seven distinct periods of change that fundamentally altered human migration and connection:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Paleolithic Age (70,000\u201310,000 BCE): human foraging<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The Neolithic Age (10,000\u20133000 BCE): transition to human farming<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The Equestrian Age (3000\u20131000 BCE): domestication of livestock, written communication, and trading<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The Classical Age (1000 BCE \u20131500 CE): development of empires\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The Ocean Age (1500\u20131800): expansion through sea conquest\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. The Industrial Age (1800\u20132000): development of the industrial economy<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. The Digital Age (Twenty-First Century): the entire world in instantaneous interconnected digital data<\/span>[2]<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Tackling the entire expanse of human history, over 70,000 years, is no small task. Sachs zeroes explicitly in on the role of natural resources (hunting to gathering, plow to precision agriculture), information (petroglyphs to alphabets, printing press to AI), tool innovation (stone tools to bronze, engineering to digital networks), transportation (foot to horses, sail to virtual space) and institutionalization within each of these ages. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sachs believes that by looking back at our history, we can better understand the three significant issues of our time: (1) Our willingness to choose a path of shared prosperity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability; (2) How we organized global governance in a post-Anglo-American age; (3) Developing an accomplishable model of human understanding and ethics.<\/span>\u00a0[3]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    As a \u201cRed-Blooded American,\u201d I was raised on the infallible notion of the United States’ supremacy. Living into the promises of Manifest Destiny, American supremacy bathed our social studies and history textbooks as a whitewashing of history only perceived U.S. righteousness throughout every major conflict, including the invasion of foreign soil and the commandeering of its resources by any means necessary. The innovation and world-altering developments from the continents of Asia, Africa, and South America were never mentioned without their connection to European colonization and imperialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sachs\u2019\u00a0<\/span>The Ages of Globalization<\/span><\/em>\u00a0challenges the notion of American supremacy and calls readers to examine the implications of these notions as one of several cautions behind the world\u2019s challenges today. Moreover, he looks at the culmination of Western capitalism as it bears great shared responsibility behind the world\u2019s climate challenges. He stated, \u201cThese planetary boundaries are threatened mainly by greenhouse-gas emissions, poor agricultural practices and diets, chemical pollutants, and inadequate waste management. All of these problems have technological and behavioral solutions that can raise or sustain output while lowering environmental impacts.\u201d<\/span>[4]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    Through this book, Sachs offers insight into how societies developed and interconnected over 70,000 years and how we might learn from each other to resolve the problems of today and the coming decades. What this requires is an empathetic and humble approach to listening and learning from one another, understanding that each context and culture brings something significant to the table of globalization. As Western and Garcia put it in\u00a0<\/span>Global Leadership Perspective<\/span><\/em>, \u201cThese gaps we believe have led to a failure to grasp and account for the diversity in how leadership manifests itself and is practiced across the globe, influenced by local and regional histories, traditions and cultures in different regions of the world.\u201d<\/span>[5]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    As organizational leaders in a highly globalized society, Sachs provides incredible insight into understanding the context, culture, and history behind how we are all connected. So much of leading through and after the pandemic has been the art of guessing while practicing adaptability. However, when we can look back over several ages of human civilization, understanding that dynamic change is inevitable, we can begin to prepare ourselves and those we lead to experience it together with varying and insightful perspectives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sachs provides a historical analysis of globalization, assesses the world\u2019s current and future challenges, and points readers to strategic steps for our future interconnectedness as a species sharing the earth. He noted, \u201cThe successive ages of globalization have expanded our outlook and interdependence. We have learned to think globally. By understanding our common history, and our common vulnerability, we can also grasp our common interests and values. In that way, we can also find a path to shared prosperity and peace.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>[6]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    [1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Sachs, Jeffrey D.,\u00a0<\/span>The Ages of Globalization<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(New York: Columbia University Press, 2020), 1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [2]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [3]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 31.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [4]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 189.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [5]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Western, Simon, and E\u0301ric-Jean Garcia,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Global Leadership Perspectives<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Los Angeles: SAGE, 2018), 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    [6]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Sachs,\u00a0<\/span>The Ages of Globalization<\/span><\/em>, 31.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Globalization is one buzzword we have all heard for the last decade or more. And with the development of faster travel and innovative communication technology, we are living in a more universally connected world than ever before. Well, maybe not, according to Jeffrey David Sachs, American economist and scholar, who believes humanity has always been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2568,2573],"class_list":["post-30680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sachs","tag-the-ages-of-globalization","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30681,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30680\/revisions\/30681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}